The Unwelcome
by LadyMaito
Summary: Benny Weir is a tech engineer, a video game designer, and a hardcore blogger who loves doing documentaries on the paranormal. Recently, he's had his mind set on a new case in which people have been disappearing mysteriously and reappearing later in...altered states. He's always kept close contact with his best friend, Ethan, while on his adventures. So why has he stopped messaging?


September 11th, 2017 8:18 PM

_Wicketsville, British Columbia_

* * *

"What's up, E?" Benny grinned from the drivers seat of his sedan. On the back seat against the beige upholstery, a bright green duffel bag and a lot of electronic equipment could be seen. And in the back of the vehicle, more luggage.

"So, you know how I hate talking to cameras when you're not on the other side..." Benny made a helpless face, and the sound of tapping keys could be heard. "It just feels weird. But listen, I'm here in Wicketsville, and the town looks alright."

The camera swerved, and against all the flares and bright street lamps it was evident that Benny was parked in front of some kind of hotel. It was old looking, but well kept and had the broad, classy look of being built in another time. Big wooden letters, painted purple, hung above the double doors. "Better than my usual digs. Kinda like home, actually." Benny mused pleasantly, and the camera turned back to his face, lit up with a suppressed childish glee. "I'm only about twenty miles from Bluebell Plains. It's awesome here- the hotel's named after Merlin!"

The camera panned enthusiastically back to the hotel sign, lit up by angled green lights, and gave an excited little shake before focusing again on Benny's face.

"Anyway, I know your on that retreat or whatever with Sarah." Benny made another face, a bit less pleasant than the last one. "And you don't have internet connection right now, but you'll answer tomorrow, won't you? Or call? I'm dying to tell you about this story I found-"

The screen gave a glitch and was overtaken quickly by static. A moment later, Benny's confused face stared at the lens.

"Damn, must be another bug." Benny shook his head, tossing his brunet curls into an even more unruly form and gave a sigh. "I'll have to look at that later."

"So, here's the new story I found." Benny was shuffling papers around on the seat beside him. "I'm never prepared for these things...one more reason I could never make it in the big cities like you." Benny winked and bumped the laptop so that all that could be seen was flat keys and a touch pad. Then it was pushed back up and a Benny was looking out his front window.

"Funny stars out tonight." Benny's head tilted. "You'd love to see this, E. The sky is so clear...it's unreal." After a moment he smiled back at the screen. "But I keep getting offtrack. In this new story, the missing person named Anna Hafton from a couple towns over had been found on the edge of that field, Bluebell Plains. She'd been missing for just over six days, after she'd left for a business meeting. The report said, upon finding her, she'd been disoriented, irritable, and a had signs of an allergic reaction of some kind. But other than that, she was completely fine. No dehydration, no injuries, nothing. Just confusion and a runny nose, apparently...this is where it gets funny!" Benny widened his gaze and held a finger up for emphasis.

"She answered all of the questions at the police station with a _startling_ _calm_, like she had no care in the world. Said that she'd been tired and had fallen asleep in her vehicle, but that's crazy! Because her car was no where to be found, and still hasn't been, and this was just over a week ago. She showed no signs of violence or shock upon leaving the hospital, but the next day she'd been checked back in by her family for some kind of mental instability." Benny looked back up at the camera. "She's been in a coma since then."

"So, there's like...a _lot_ of definite mystery here, I think." Benny said, shrugging and throwing the papers off to the side again. "A lot to work with for sure. Of course, it could just be some freak accident that messed with her brain, or some kind of drug deal gone wrong, but there's something about this place..." Benny looked around the streets. "It feels..."

He struggled for words for a few moments before giving up. "It just _feels_." He said finally. "Like it's alive. There's something here, I know it."

"Anyway." Benny sighed. "I'm gonna go check into the hotel, E. I might video some more, but despite my energy, I'm really tired.." He shrugged, smiling a but sheepishly. "Maybe I just wanted to see you. Or, talk to you, I guess. Maybe that's why I'm sitting out here all alone in the encroaching darkness."

Benny grinned at the camera, snickering a moment. "If I don't video again tonight, have a safe night, E. Even if you will get this _way_ after you come back..."

"Sweet dreams."

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September 12th 2017 1:24 PM

_Somewhere near Wicketsville, British Columbia_

* * *

"What up, E?" Benny greeted the camera, now mobile, since he would hardly be walking around in the woods holding his laptop. "It's kinda cold out." He swerved the camera around so that Ethan could see dense forests all around the chipper male.

"I'm already tired." Benny huffed, as he climbed over some boulders. The heavy-duty boots he was wearing were stained a darker color from the few on the long grasses he walked on. "There's a campsite somewhere out there...cabins and stuff, but you can only drive so far before you have to hoof it. It's only like five more miles. Only."

Benny's face was sweaty when he faced the camera back to his face. "Definitely _not_ for the faint of heart...must be some serious hiking freaks at this campsite...I hope there's hot chocolate. There's an easier route than this. There's one that's flat all the way, and I wouldn't have to be climbing over all this...schist!" Benny exclaimed as he almost slipped over some slick rocks. "It's just that, if I don't take this way, I won't go by...the cave."

Benny huffed, and the camera tilted. There were sounds of shuffling on the now rocky terrain and when the camera faced Benny, he was leaning against a tree. There were huge rocks behind him, and more trees, with just a bit of gray sky peeking between the leaves, high above.

"Did I tell you about the cave?" Benny asked in a huff. "I thought I did...when I talked to you yesterday, I thought I covered most of it...I need to take a break, E. Hold on."

The screen went black.

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September 12th 2017 1:57 PM

_Somewhere a bit further from Wicketsville, British Columbia_

* * *

"Okay, I'm good to go." Benny smiled, though his face was still a little sweaty. He was already walking again. "I think it actually got _colder_ in the last couple minutes...I can see my breath! Can you see it?"

Indeed, there was white vapor puffing from Benny's mouth.

"Listen, E, I really wish you would call again." Benny admitted earnestly. "Even after...what is this...my seventh time doing this kind of investigation alone? Even after seven times of being by myself, it still feels so weird to be doing this without you." Benny huffed. "We were the dream team..."

The spellmaster's boots gave a grating, scraping sound as they slipped over the rocks under him. "I'm not built for hiking! How much further is that camp site?! God, this is treacherous...I didn't think it'd be this hard."

"Maybe I should head back..." Benny looked disbelievingly around himself. "Maybe I should just use some kind of spell to see where I am...I never really trusted GPS's anyway..."

"Call me when you get the chance, E." Benny smiled at the camera, though he looked a little sick. "I'll message again later." [1]

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September 17th 2017, 3:12 PM

_A Dark Apartment, Somewhere in Ontario_

* * *

Ethan's tense brown eyes narrowed as he surveyed the computer screen; the only source of light in the entire apartment, save for the small digital clock on the bedside table, and the faint light streaming in from the streetlamps below. His fingers hovered over the video chat icon...over his cell...over his emergency Benny-radar crystal he kept disguised as a key chain. Dare he resort to _that_? It couldn't have been that serious...

Except it...was.

Benny had kept sending videos, for the entirety of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth days of September. The amount in total had been twelve videos over those three days, varying in length, but never in a tersely rushed or particularly suspicious manner. When Ethan had returned from his field trip to Quebec with Sarah, and saw all the videos, ending mid-day on the fourteenth without a text or call to follow, he'd thought...maybe Benny just hadn't had the time. Maybe he'd found something that had really, _really_ drawn him in, and immersed him...it had happened before. It wasn't all that strange, he supposed...for Benny to miss a day.

Then that day had turned into two. Then three. Still, it had happened before...sometimes they both got distracted.

But try as he might, Ethan could not shake a dark feeling in the pit of his stomach. A sick feeling. Like, somehow, he could tell that Benny needed help. It didn't exactly make sense, and he didn't want to be _that_ friend, the clingy, creepily-attentive type, but...why wasn't he messaging him back?

The seer's finger's passed over the touch pad of his laptop; Ethan's tired, insomnia-bruised eyes followed the movements of his friend's expression, of the terrain behind him. Trying to find any sort of clue as to why he's stopped contact.

Could he be hurt? It was thoughts like these that kept Ethan's anxiety well-fed, and so Ethan thought, what's a little scrying going to hurt? It wasn't an invasion of privacy. It would just let Ethan know Benny's condition, is all...allow him to have a small peek into his friend's life at that moment. Ethan was _worried_. Since Benny had begun taking these trips by himself, Ethan had always been slightly worried, but never like this.

So, it was with a confident flick of his thumb that Ethan snapped open the hollow, remote-start device on his key chain, and slid his fingers over the energy-infused rock. His heart settled a bit. Benny had spent weeks with this rock on his person specifically, letting it soak up his energy, for the sole purpose of enabling Ethan's abilities to seek out his consciousness like a bloodhound on a scent trail. If Benny had been hurt, if he was lost, or if he was okay, as long as he was in this world, Ethan would know in a moment. This method was a sure deal. There would be no room for doubt.

Shoulder's falling in relief at the prospect, Ethan closed his fingers around the rock...and then closed his eyes.

...But...nothing.

His eyes snapped open, and he dropped the clear quartz to the linoleum in sheer surprise. It was ugly, jarring feeling that sent sensations of ice water trickling through his being, stealing the breath from his lungs. He felt the sudden need to throw up, and out of sheer horror at the feeling, his eyes began tearing up. It was impossible. The crystal...was _empty_.

There was nothing. For all intents and purposes, Benny had somehow...

Vanished.

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* * *

Author's Note: Hey! How's it hangin'? :) Hope you're well. If anyone I'm familiar with reads this drabble, you can continue reading...or you can exit...now! :D

I know I'm severely lacking in my other stories, and I apologize. But that's not what this is about. This draft has literally been sitting on the dusty-ass shelves of my notes app since September 7th 2015, 11:05 PM. It's pretty much a drabble now, though it _was_ meant to be a full-length story. You can't imagine my surprise when I found this file sitting around last year, and I was like "TF is this?" and then I read the first part, and it looked oddly familiar, and I was like, "Ooohhh, so I _did_ end up writing the beginning of that story!" Although I can't really remember writing this, or where exactly I planned on going with it, I do know that it was based off a short story I wrote for my high school English class way back when. [1] Is where that draft ended, pretty much, and I just wrote the following part on the spot, just so it didn't end on too much of a _plateau_, if you know what I mean.

Anyway. There's a reason I haven't been updating. It's because, since December I've been fucking swamped with schoolwork and real life priorities, and all this shit, plus I'm participating in a knowledge bowl competition soon (whereas I needed to read, study, and memorize seven books from December to March to even have a chance at winning, and a few people are counting on me). So, that's actually what i was doing before I came on FF. I just needed a break, so I set this up to post.

I like the idea of this story...don't know when I'll have time to work on it. The good news is, I can come back to my favorite stories after the 21st of March, because that's when my competition ends! Yay!

Hang in there! Spring is coming! :D


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